


Of Plastic Tests and Injustice

by rosieblue



Category: Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: Biracial Omi, Black Raimundo, Hey What If This Was A Cliche Teen Drama, Jumping to Conclusions, Other, Taking Disproportionate To A New Level, but also not really, possible pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 16:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20212621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosieblue/pseuds/rosieblue
Summary: One day, Master Ling finds a pregnancy test on temple grounds.





	Of Plastic Tests and Injustice

**Author's Note:**

> I've always been curious about this idea, so why not give it a go? Also, next time we're sticking to humor.

Kimiko woke up that day as she did on every other day, cursing daylight and wishing she could have slept that one minute before the alarm. Just once. But it was 4:59 and her eyes automatically opened.

It had been an uneventful day, just like the day before. The old temple cook, Izumi, was _finally_ leaving to go on a vacation. Her granddaughter, a college-aged girl called Kana, came to pick her up with little to no commotion.

They went to training after a quick goodbye, with Omi grumbling about having to stomach Dojo’s food for ten whole days, only to find that training was going to be on-hold today.

Master Fung was going to host the temple master of the Southern Xiaolin temple for a “_big, important meeting_” none of them, save Raimundo, were allowed to attend. Not that the Wind Dragon wanted to.

Kimiko was stunned to believe it, but it had been nearly two years since he’d been named their leader and even though he’d taken a liking to putting some of the anti-black monks in their place without retribution, he never liked the other duties that came with the position.

It wasn’t exactly a cushy job, even she had to admit that. Master Fung had let them celebrate the promotion for almost two weeks before he set in the harsh reality.

Her friend now had more responsibilities, like taking the extra shift guarding the vault when someone was sick or tired. He had to take double their punishments if they needed punishment and got none of their individual rewards if they succeeded.

He also had more assignments than they did. Kimiko swore that one point she saw equations and numbers and gagged at the thought of magical algebra that early in the morning. Those days, she was thankful she hadn’t been picked.

Right now, they’d been escorting the old masters—well, following them, really—to the meeting room.

Clay had been curious about Master Shu, the other temple’s head, and wanted to get a look. So, they followed Raimundo, who’d been trailing at the back of the entourage, reluctance clear on his face.

“He looks like he wakes up on the wrong side of the mat every morning”, Omi quipped. “Yep, that’s Master Shu alright.”

Clay had been disappointed but tried not to show it. Just last night, he’d read up about the man in the scroll room and saw that Master Shu had been a legendary warrior once upon a time, born from a line leading to an old Earth Dragon.

“Looks can be deceiving”, the cowboy said, sighing. “Just look at me; no one believes me when I say I speak some Swedish. Det här är helt _löjligt_!”

Raimundo scoffed, clearly hearing that part. “Yeah, well, at least _you_ moisturize.”

The entourage stopped before the meeting room and the high-ranking monks and other elders walked in, one by one.

Just before he stepped into the meeting room, Raimundo whispered to Kimiko that the formal robes were the itchiest, dullest, _and_ cringiest thing he’d ever worn in his life.

“No, it isn’t”, she said, smirking. “Remember how you were dressed when you first came here, Fresh Prince?”

Omi had cracked a smile at that, not without a tinge of barely hidden exasperation at the exchange. Then, Clay said Raimundo needed to get his butt into the room because Master Yang was eyeing them with what looked like an idea for extra chores in his eyes.

As the doors slid shut and the two apprentices guarding them took their positions, Kimiko turned to the two other boys.

“Now what?”, she asked, tone already full of complaints.

Clay shrugged. “Well, there’s nothing to do around these parts.”

“_Wonderful_ observation, Clay”, Omi said, rolling his eyes. “Are you gonna declare the weather forecast next?”

The cowboy paid the youngest of the group no mind, shrugging, as he and the other boy turned to follow Kimiko, leading the way to their training grounds.

“We could go to the mall. Get those smoothies y’all love spending so much on. Not like I see the appeal, but it would be a change.”

“I would kill for a passion-fruit smoothie right now”, Kimiko said, toying with the idea. “But Master Huang told the apprentices to not let us take any travel Wu and…”

“Rai is the only one who knows how to drive a stick”, Clay finished, dismayed. “Well, this is sad enough to bring a tear to a glass eye.”

Omi and Kimiko shared a look before the former nodded. “Sure, _that_.”

After much deliberation that led to nothing, Clay mentioned he’d been “fixin’ to” to check out a few more scrolls he found interesting “till the cows came home” and Omi said, in a few simple words, that he was taking a shower.

Finding nothing better to do, Kimiko shrugged and headed to her shared room. There had to be something on the internet she could waste time watching.

* * *

Master Ling was on his way to the meeting, being extremely un-monk-like by cursing every single creature and person on this earth, living or dead.

He didn’t worry because no could hear him, no one important anyway, because everyone else was at the meeting. Master Ling was late but that wasn’t unusual. He’d never been early to anything a day in his life.

Today, though, wasn’t just any day. Master Shu from the Southern temple was here and Master Ling had a few ideas of reforms he wanted approved.

Passing by the Xiaolin Dragons’ bathroom, he had to stop to close the door because nothing irked him in life more than an open door that could be perfectly slid shut.

He stopped, grumbling under his breath about those disrespectful kids, as he tried to slide the door shut.

It wouldn’t budge. Something was stuck in the hinges, stopping the door from sliding. Ling stooped down and picked the item out, wedging it out with little difficulty.

Breath stopping at the revelation, Master Ling had to blink a few times to grasp what he was seeing. This was a pregnancy test, one that read positive. It’d been stuck in the door of the Xiaolin Dragons’ bathroom no less.

That could only mean one thing, he thought, dreading the answer. Master Ling needed to get to the council now more than ever.

* * *

Kimiko had never been the type to scare easily.

She’d held Clay’s hand when Wuya came back corporeal, as he trembled with fear, and listened when he told her that that sight put the fear of God in him again.

She comforted Omi when he confessed to her, with a hint of shame, that he couldn’t stand rodents and did her best at appearing serious, desperately holding her laugh in.

One time even, after seeing an intriguing Netflix drama about life and death, Kimiko stayed up all night with Raimundo trying to alleviate his fears about dying alone.

So, it was a wonder that she was scared now. Tohomiko Kimiko was scared of Master Fung and the thought alone seemed sacrilegious.

She didn’t know why she was summoned to the council meeting but she was. Zhao, a new non-magical apprentice with a stutter, hurriedly came to get her as she lounged in her room.

He said it was urgent and the old masters needed to see her now. When Kimiko said she was coming but only needed a minute to slip into her formal robes, Zhao told her she was needed _now_ and she should go as she was.

On her slow walk to the meeting room, Kimiko almost prayed that was one of Raimundo’s stupid pranks and that he coached Zhao on that brilliant performance. Once inside the room, though, she saw that the mood was as somber as it was bloodcurdling.

The old masters had identical grim faces and some shook their heads disapprovingly when she respectfully bowed. Master Yang was glaring and Master Ling avoided looking at her.

Taking a look at Raimundo to see just what the hell was going on, Kimiko saw that he was biting his lips nervously. He was nervous for _her_, she realized.

Kimiko was about to say something about how she’d done nothing wrong and whatever it was must have been someone else’s fault, but Master Yang, the old master who’d taken it upon himself to ruin the Dragons’ lives, stopped her.

“Shoku Warrior, you will not speak until spoken to”, he said, stern voice booming. “Do not forget your lessons.”

The old man then threw Raimundo a look she couldn’t decipher and Master Fung came to her rescue. Or, at least, she thought he was.

“Kimiko”, her old teacher began. “You’ve been summoned here to answer a few questions.”

She almost said she hadn’t studied but wisely held back her wit. Instead, Kimiko didn’t break eye-contact as she asked her question.

“Is this a trial or something?”

The meeting room went from condemning quietness to full to the brim with whispers, as the elders side-chatted and murmured. Off the few Japanese monks present, Kimiko caught words about her insolence. One of them said that if this was a trial, then all the evidence was against her.

“Simply one question, Fire Dragon”, Master Fung said, addressing her by her official title. It put a bad taste in her mouth for some reason. “What is that?”

Kimiko turned her head to see who Master Fung was pointing at and saw Master Ling, who finally decided to look her in the eye. He was holding something that looked plastic. There was a little plus too. Suddenly, it all made sense.

“It’s not mine”, she said as soon as she realized what the object was.

Something akin to a stone had dropped in her stomach, so even the laugh that almost bubbled out of her when she realized she sounded like Clay when he was caught with beer died on her lips.

The faces in the room made sense now. The tongue clicks and the knowing looks and the snarls, even Raimundo’s terrified nervousness made sense. What didn’t, though, were Master Fung and Dojo’s faces. They looked like they’d been made of ice.

“How do you assume to prove that?”, Master Ling said, neutrally. “This was on _your_ bathroom floor and it was found today, of all days. The day when every Master and Official would be in this room.”

He paused, turning to gaze upon the monks seated in their wide circle.

“Perfect coincidence, isn’t it? You planned on getting rid of this object before the council exited this room. Yes or no?”

“No”, Kimiko said, narrowing her eyes. “Because it’s not mine.”

“Who else could it belong to then?”, Master Luo asked. “No other females of child-bearing age live in this temple.”

Kimiko’s lips curled up in a snarl at his words. _Females_. Master Luo had always been the first elder she imagined punching when she hit the wooden dummies every day for more than one reason. She clenched her fists before letting them fall.

“I’m not changing my answer; it’s not mi—”

“Do you assume to tell the council that you are a virgin?”, he interrupted.

The question startled her. “I—what?”

“You heard the question, Fire Dragon”, Master Yang said, much more openly aggressive than the other monk. “Are you a virgin?”

Kimiko almost considered looking to Master Fung for help but thought better of it. His gaze remained neutral throughout the exchange. He didn’t believe her.

If Master Fung, her own teacher, didn’t believe her, then why should the others? Why should she beg and plead and explain when it was pointless? She wasn’t going to stand for this humiliation any longer.

“No”, she said. “And it’s _still_ not mine.”

* * *

In the Dragons’ room, three of the four warriors gathered in the shared common area, trying to wrap their heads around the events of the day.

The day had been uneventful from the start with no training and a boring council meeting to fill it up until further notice, until one of the Xiaolin Dragons was brought into the council meeting for questioning.

There was a sentence Clay never thought he’d hear until he did. For the first time since he’d been here, he heard one of the elders speak about them like they’d committed a crime.

The elders had never really liked them, even he could tell that. He’d never seen one smile at them once and when they spoke to them, it was usually about someone breaking an unspoken rule. Only Masters Fung and Huang liked them.

Still, even if they haven’t been generally nice to them, the old masters weren’t blatantly horrible either. Well, at least not to Clay.

Over the years, he’d heard more than a hundred stories from Raimundo about subtle and blatant racism and xenophobia. Kimiko followed that with tales about how they treated her horribly because she was a girl. Even Omi had to say that his upbringing was stressful because of an incident or two.

Now, though, it seemed like the elders had gone, well, ballistic with rage from what he heard. You see, a pregnancy test was found in the temple. In their bathroom, specifically.

Clay didn’t believe it was Kimiko’s at first because that just sounded stupid. She hadn’t left the temple in a few weeks, not even to get the groceries. He knew that because he’d taken her turn.

The elders hadn’t thought of that, though, dismissing the theory immediately. If Kimiko couldn’t leave the temple, then someone probably snuck in. 

“And they didn’t listen to her?”, Omi was asking, worriedly. “Not even when she was trying to explain?”

Raimundo shook his head, frantically, as he nervously patted his knees. “No, they didn’t. Not one word.”

The leader paused, taking in a breath and releasing it. He seemed intent on changing the subject.

“It’s weird, you know, the way Master Yang and his posse were looking at me in there”, he began. “You’d think I was the one who knocked her up.”

Clay shared a look with Omi then, silently debating as to who should break in the news, before the former sighed, figuring he should be the one to speak. Not that he wanted to.

Out of all the awkward conversations he didn’t want to have with his friend, Clay wanted to have this one the least. He had to, however, so he was making his transition from Captain America to Captain Obvious.

“Well, aren’t you?”

Raimundo’s jaw dropped. “Oh my _God_, Clay, how could you even go there?!”

Well, how could he _not_ go there? Clay was many things but he wasn’t an idiot. He was blessed to have all five senses.

One time, as he studied his conversational French, he noticed his two friends make fun of him, which sadly wasn’t unusual.

After one too many ‘_oh la la’s_ and some ‘_oui, je suis une baguette’_ jokes, they turned to each other in a game of who can come up with the best inappropriate line.

That had been Kimiko, who made several witty lines about French-kissing, while Raimundo practically cackled and joked about trying them out.

It was disgusting but it was normal. Sadly. Somehow, Clay was always blessed by friends who play-flirted because they knew he would scoff and roll his eyes at the action and the lines. Back in Texas, those were Onika and Jillian. In the Xiaolin temple, it was Kimiko and Raimundo.

Still, it was unsettling enough for Clay because he really needed to study for his B2’s and he was getting sick of the noise, so he made a dig of his own. Get a room, you two. Now, he worried they might have taken his joke seriously.

Added to that, he’d also heard whispers from the apprentices and the other monks and he’d be sorry if he didn’t check to see their basis of truth.

If this was the case, then he couldn’t idly stand by as one friend gets thrown in the gutter while the other lounges around in front of him.

Not that he wanted any of his friends locked away at all. Clay simply wanted them to figure out a result for this gigantic mess before it was too late. Time wasn’t on their side and neither were the old masters.

Even as Clay looked his friend in the eye, incredulously now, Raimundo didn’t seem to understand his hints. Sighing, he added.

“Well, for starters, I’m gay and—”

“_And_? Are you implying I’m not? Giddy up, cowboy because I’m about to tell you a thing or two about identity poli—"

“You’re the only one in here who likes girls like that, though”, Clay countered. “And you two tend to go off alone quite a few times.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Clay saw Omi turn around dramatically like a spectator at a baseball match.

If it had been any other topic, he might have cracked a smile at that and told him to shut his mouth before flies flew in but right now he couldn’t. He was waiting for a much-needed reply.

Raimundo rolled his eyes. “We only go off alone to talk shit behind you guys’ backs, that’s one. And two, it’s always for a few _minutes_ at a time.”

Although he had said that last bit like he’d just figured out the cure to a deadly disease, Clay made a face and shrugged, as if telling him ‘so what’. 

Omi took that as the moment to act his age. “A few minutes can, you know, _be_ enough.”

“You’re too young for this”, Raimundo hissed. “Butt out!”

Clay gave Omi a look, mouthing at him to shut up, before patting his other friend on the back. This was going to be a little difficult, but it was worth a shot.

“How about last Valentine’s Day?”, the cowboy prodded. “I was on a date with Jae-Hyun and Omi was frolicking with Jermaine in the woods—”

“I was showing him ancient Xiaolin symbols”, the youngest Dragon said under his breath, loudly enough to interrupt his friend.

“Sure”, Clay said to the interloper, before turning back to his other friend. “And you and her never left this room. You had the entire day to yourselves and the two of you have been mighty lonesome and mighty dateless for a while. So?”

Raimundo was so shocked he lost the ability to speak, opening and closing his mouth every few seconds in an attempt to find an answer.

“We won’t judge neither of you”, Clay added hastily.

Omi nodded. “Not harshly anyway.”

“We didn’t do it though”, Raimundo said, insistently. “You know me more than anyone. I’d never risk having a Scorpio kid!”

Clay blinked twice before turning from one Dragon to the other in the hopes of an explanation. It came in the form of Omi’s nod.

“It’s true, Clay”, the Water Dragon said, a moment later, thoughtfully. “He never dates in February.”

“You mean to tell me”, the cowboy began slowly. “That our friend might be pregnant and we don’t know who she was with?”

Raimundo sighed. “She says she’s not, but…”

Neither boy finished that sentence, though they had an idea of what their friend wanted to say. If it wasn’t Kimiko’s, then whose was it?

Clay huffed, disgruntled. There weren’t any possible choices, after all. People who could get pregnant were rare in this particular Xiaolin temple.

There were a few nuns they’d seen at Master Monk Guan’s temple. In theirs they only had the cook, who was well into her sixties. At one point, the temple _had_ even hired maids.

They’d been quickly let go, though, because they’d taken on their chores with ease and had moved on to do the chores assigned to the Dragons, who didn’t put any fight to try to perform said chores.

The boys considered the enemies they’d faced for a moment and just a moment.

No one, not even the elders, on the temple grounds had sensed Heylin energy today or the day before and on the off chance that they snuck in, neither Katnappe nor Wuya fit the profile.

It was ridiculous that any of the Heylin they fought would show up unannounced one day to throw a pregnancy test in their bathroom’s hinges. Even the strife caused didn’t pay for the impracticality.

There weren’t any other possibilities, none but their fellow Dragon. The boys couldn’t think it even if they believed it.

They had a few more moments to reflect in silence before Zhao interrupted to tell them dinner was ready.

* * *

It seemed unlikely that she would fall asleep in her situation, but that was exactly what Kimiko did two hours in her new bedroom.

She’d been escorted to a guest room after the council was done grilling her. The apprentices leading her there locked her element in the Sun-Chi Lantern, advised her not to fight them because it wouldn’t be in her favor, and told her she only had to wait until Master Fung came to talk to her, who surely took his sweet time coming around.

The apprentices, Mao and Zhang, were kind enough but Kimiko knew she wasn’t allowed to leave the room. Someone had armed them with fighting staffs in case the message wasn’t clear enough.

Although Master Fung ended up not coming to talk like he said he would, Master Luo did.

That wasn’t good. Kimiko would have rather faced the elusive and harsh Master Wong or even Master Yang. At least, they’d never try to hide that they disliked her and they wouldn’t pretend to be on her side.

Master Luo wouldn’t do that though. No, that old snake would soften his voice and look her in the eyes and pretend to care. Once with others, he would turn on her and condemn her faster than she could say Xiaolin.

Making sure she rolled her eyes clearly enough for him to see, Kimiko turned and gave the man her back, paying him no mind. He didn’t care, though, sighing and walking to the little table in the room.

A thud of something heavy and made of metal made its way to Kimiko’s ears. Curiously, she turned with her arms crossed.

“This will be left here,” Master Luo said, pleased he had her attention. “In case you wish to repent and ask for forgiveness.”

Kimiko looked from the electric razor the old master set on the table to the man himself, surprised at the audacity. Crossing her arms even tighter, the girl scoffed.

“Repent? For what?”

Master Luo gave her a grim smile. “I think you know, child. Do know beforehand that a _perfectly_ clean-shaven head gives credibility to the claim.”

She smiled, bitterly. “And what did I do wrong?”

“It’s not becoming to talk of these things, young Dragon.”

“It’s also not becoming to throw up and swallow your own sick and yet you seem to be doing just that.”

She paused. “It’s not mine.”

“In the old days,” Master Luo said, ignoring her with a cold smile. “The old masters never gave the culprits the choice, you know. They used knives back then and the scars caused never left those women’s heads.”

The veiled threat didn’t go unnoticed by Kimiko, who mentally noted it for when the time came when she would be free. This man would be the first to face her wrath, she thought, vowing to herself.

“It was Dashi’s Way,” the old man added, resignedly.

Kimiko scoffed at that. “Dashi’s Way. Funny, you twist his words and make them unrecognizable after his death and you call it his way.”

“You only say that,” Mastery Luo said. “Because you’ve never paid attention to your history.”

On that note, the old man left the room and left Kimiko to her thoughts, which were now increasingly worried and scared.

A little after that point, the fear started to mingle with an anger that made her pace the length of the room endlessly, flames wanting but unable to sputter out of her fingers. The anger eventually took its toll on her and Kimiko went to sleep.

When she woke up later in the night, Mao was kind enough to slide the doors open to let her know it was almost midnight and lights were out. Zhang could go and get her something to eat. There was no ‘_if you wanted to_’, Kimiko noticed.

She reminded herself that the apprentices only took their orders from the elders, as she internally steamed. Smiling, Kimiko nodded and told Mao that she was hungry. He closed the door with a polite smile of his own and the night only began for her.

A cough alerted her someone was in the room, but it wasn’t anyone she could see, so the confined girl smiled, relieved.

“He shut the door”, Kimiko said, in case whoever it was hadn’t seen. “Take the Shroud off.”

Omi did as he was told, ripping the fabric off, as he pushed away from Raimundo and Clay, panting as he fanned himself with his hands.

“Do you know how hard it is”, he began. “Sneaking three people of modest height under that thing? It can only extend so much!”

Kimiko shrugged. “Well, you just told me so…”

Jumping off her mat, the Fire Dragon went to hug her friends, thankful for their presence. At last, she’d be with someone who’d talk to her in a civil manner.

“Kimiko”, Clay began after the group hug disbanded. “We’ve decided to come here to let you know we love you and support you no matter what.”

Omi nodded. “It’s true and if anyone asks, we’ll defend you, it goes without saying.”

Not knowing what to make of this, Kimiko smiled until she felt that her lips were too strained by the act. Sitting down again, she gave a questioning look to Raimundo, who just nodded.

“Exactly what they said. We’ll always be here.”

The three boys shared looks between each other now that let Kimiko know there was much else than they’d let on. The odd behavior weirded her out but this look was just scary.

“What happened?”, she asked, more than a little worried.

Omi grinned, too brightly. “Nothing.”

“We’ve decided that maybe”, Clay said, grimacing. “That maybe—”

Huffing, Raimundo decided to save his friend the anxiety attack. “That maybe I should tell the elders I’m the father.”

It took her a few moments to understand the words but when she did, Kimiko jumped to her feet, scandalized.

“Excuse me?”, she whispered, sucker-punched and angry. “What the fuck?”

Clay gestured for her to calm down, as he tried to rationalize.

“The elders already think he is, Kim”, the cowboy said. “We know the truth but they won’t believe it.”

“It’ll actually do more good than harm”, Omi added. “Raimundo’s our leader. They can’t do anything to you if he holds them off.”

Raimundo nodded, looking her in the eye. “And I _will_ hold them off, Koko, I promise.”

He paused then, considering his next words.

“Then I’ll tell them we have to go to Brazil to tell my family the news”, he said. “But we’ll actually go to my Tia Daiana’s abortion clinic and—”

Kimiko held a hand to stop him. “Hold on a second, please, just shut up for a minute.”

He did as he was told, giving her the time she needed to process what felt like a sad, awkward fever dream. When she was done, Kimiko opened her eyes and dropped her hands from her face.

“That’s a shitty plan”, she began, like it should be obvious. “For one thing, they could take away your rank and—”

“They won’t”, Raimundo interrupted quietly. “Dojo came and told me that. I didn’t—I didn’t even ask him.”

Kimiko cleared her throat. “Oh.”

Despite intending to not cry because she hated being pitied above everything else, the Fire Dragon felt a few rogue tears escape. She wiped them aggressively, brain working just as quickly.

Realizing something, the girl turned her face from her friends, as she asked.

“And what will happen to me then, if you don’t do anything?”

Raimundo and Clay shared awkward, scared looks then, not that she knew they did, but Omi was the only one who could speak now.

“Monks are supposed to never marry or have kids or relations that lead to kids”, he began, explaining the part they all knew. “But we’re Dragons, so ‘monk’ is just an honorary title for us but—”

He paused, taking a much-needed breath.

“It happened once. We had a nun called Ni, who discovered she was pregnant one day, and she wanted to have the baby so, so she told everyone. The masters expelled her and an apprentice, the father, from the temple.”

Kimiko didn’t need a mirror to know that her face was grim as she felt. She also didn’t need to look at Omi to know he was scrambling over himself to make it better.

“Ni asked for the right of refuge, though”, he said, hurrying to tell them the good part. “And stayed at the temple until she gave birth and the temple took the child in!”

After he was done, Omi noticed the shocked, questioning stares of his friends. So, he shook his head, exasperated.

“No, it wasn’t _me_. This was four years ago.”

When Kimiko said nothing, Clay asked, a little hesitantly. “And she was allowed to rejoin then, right?”

“What?”, Omi said, giving him a look. “Of course not, she left and came back for the child last year.”

Raimundo grimaced, bitterly. “This is morbid.”

Kimiko had been lost in thought about the woman she was hearing about. She was sure she’d seen her, by Omi’s description.

She remembered seeing a disgruntled woman dragging a suitcase with one hand and a crying little girl with the other. Kimiko had been surprised by her sudden appearance, seemingly out of nowhere, but she saw her old robes and asked her where she was going.

“Away”, the woman had said in a sharp voice. “You should do the same. This is no place for a little girl.”

Hearing Raimundo speak jolted Kimiko back to reality, though.

She found herself staring at the embroidered dragon on his black robes, symbolizing leadership, as she remembered his title and position were kept safe. She wore the same color robes, but hers had no dragons.

He’d been almost inaudible when he told them that little tidbit about the immunity he had because of his position, clearly knowing the implications. Ni was right, this was no place for a little girl. Kimiko sighed, closing her eyes.

“I’m not pregnant, you know”, she said. “That test, it’s not mine. I swear to you on my honor as a Xiaolin Dragon it is not mine.”

Although they looked completely different, Raimundo, Clay, and Omi shared the same surprised expression.

“You are _not_ the father”, Kimiko said, sarcastically. They didn’t laugh like she had hoped they would.

The boys hadn’t left until the night almost became morning again. They whirred around her, pacing across the room and occasionally floating, as they thought out loud and deep inside.

None could come with a solution that would change the old masters’ unrelenting minds, though.

At one point, Kimiko saw Raimundo look around like he’d been struck by genius and announced that all they had to do was get a test.

Kimiko then gave him the world’s worst side-eye. “They already have a test they’re holding on to, genius. This is why I’m here.”

“I just wanna know whose test that was”, Clay mused, curiously.

“Me too”, Omi agreed. “It couldn’t belong to anyone in the temple unless it belonged to Izumi or, or Kimiko, you know.”

Clay clicked his tongue. “Nah, Izumi’s probably in menopause.”

“You don’t know that”, Raimundo interrupted, giving him a look. “My Tia Jorja had her last kid when she was almost fifty.”

“Anyway, Izumi’s not here right now”, the cowboy said, putting an end to it. “And _that_ is you lying because it’s just unrealistic.”

“Well”, Raimundo said, imitating the voice of who could only be his famed aunt, Fernanda, who he seemed terrified and bemused by. “It was a miracle from God!”

Kimiko looked between both boys then, torn between smiling and snorting. Their arguing was so normal that anyone might have thought they were just hanging out in their room, like they always did after training.

“Oh my God”, she said, not knowing what else to say. “If we’re not trying to save me from banishment, you could just leave!”

When the time did come for them to leave, though, all three boys stalled for a few minutes and Kimiko stalled enough for them all, trying to be taller and braver than she felt all the while.

She didn’t want to be alone again.

* * *

Once in their room, the three Dragon boys shuffled into their sections and switched their robes for pajamas, in silence. There was a question that remained on their minds but none dared ask it.

Omi sighed to himself, sitting on his mat in a lotus position. He couldn’t sleep like this, agitated and ticked off. Every few breaths, he found his thoughts drifting back to Kimiko.

His fellow Dragon, the first girl who was truly his friend, had been crying when they snuck into her new room. She wasn’t crying at that particular moment, having clearly just woken up, but the tear marks were still there.

He couldn’t believe they’d let that happen to her. It shouldn’t have happened to anyone and the thought that it did left knots in his stomach. Try as he might, Omi couldn’t help but blame Raimundo.

It wasn’t like there was anything he could do that he hadn’t done, the younger boy knew, but at the same time he felt like his friend should have tried harder. He’d seen him try and sometimes he managed to wear even Master Monk Guan about some ridiculous things, like letting him attend that Afropunk music festival. 

Omi breathed out again, trying to ineffectively clear his thoughts. Maybe he should just bring this up with him tomorrow; that’d be miles better than dwelling on it now.

After another minute of failing to meditate, the Water Dragon decided this was no use and flopped down on his mat. At the same time, the other two did the same as he did and Omi found it hard to not laugh.

They’d been quite in sync for some time now and if Kimiko was here, they’d have argued over how they needed to spend less time together, all four of them. They couldn’t do that now.

Instead of tuning out the unpleasantness and focusing on something better, Omi found himself thinking about Master Yang, who they’d seen half an hour ago as they left Kimiko’s room. He’d caught them and gave them a strict warning but nothing more.

Raimundo couldn’t not speak, as always. So, as the old man turned his back and began walking away, he made a sharp-tongued joke.

Does Master Yang know he could have just as easily been fooling around with Clay? So if that had happened and an elder knew, what would they have done?

Omi and Clay had tried everything to get him to shut up.

The cowboy tried clamping a hand over their leader’s mouth, which he kept removing, and the little Dragon tried to pinch him on the inside of the arm, but to no avail, because the words were said in the end.

Omi couldn’t forget Master Yang’s look at that question. It made his blood run cold when he heard the old man say that at least with the Earth Dragon, the temple wouldn’t have been shamed.

_Shamed_, he’d said. He used that word out loud about Kimiko, who’d never went to the Heylin, who’d never, not _once_, thought about leaving the temple.

Seemingly, as if he knew Omi needed to be distracted, Raimundo huffed and called him.

“I can’t believe something gossip-worthy happened in this temple that you little twerp knew”, he began, referring to Nun Ni’s story. “And you didn’t tell me!”

Omi wasn’t fooled by the joking tone in his voice, but he, too, needed to get his mind off things.

“I’m sorry, were we friends then?”, the younger boy said, sarcastically. “Because you kept calling me a little bitch baby and thought I wouldn’t understand.”

Clay snorted at that, failing at pretending to be asleep, while Raimundo scoffed.

“How _did_ you understand?”

Omi rolled his eyes. “I went on the Google—on _Google_. That slipped, _don’t_ hold it against me.”

“Oh, you went on _the Google_?”, Raimundo said, doing the opposite of what Omi said. “What are you some thirty-six year-old Brazilian auntie?”

He paused, which Omi knew, with a sigh, meant he was taking on a new voice.

“Oi, filha”, he said in a mocking unplaced imitation. “Você não vai acreditar na fofoca que ouvi!”

Uncomfortable with not understanding, Omi bristled. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know, go on the Google and find out!”

“Making jokes, I see? Well, here’s another one. You can take that funny bone and shove—"

Before Omi could finish his retort, Clay interrupted, sounding at once exasperated and amused.

“Are you two sure you ain’t related? Because you two are bickering worse than Jessie and Patrick ever did.”

He paused. “Go to bed, we have a full day ahead of ourselves. We need to talk to the old masters tomorrow.”

That was enough to restore the somber mood to the room. Omi, who’d sat upright in his excitement at mocking his friend, now laid back down, a little embarrassed of himself.

Clay was right. They needed to get their full hours of sleep to talk the elders. That would be a battle within itself and Omi would have much rather faced Chase Young.

* * *

Apparently, girls who’d been “caught” with pregnancy tests in their bathrooms couldn’t go on Wu hunts either.

Kimiko had to learn that the hard way, of course. She’d been looking out of the window—where an apprentice had stood guard on the other end, just in case—because she had that one privilege, at least, when she saw her friends hurrying to the vault.

They hadn’t tried to look at her and when they left the vault, each with his signature Wu, they ran out of view. The only clue Kimiko had to anything that went on was Dojo’s loud yelling about his over-shared symptoms.

She bitterly wondered how her life had changed so drastically overnight.

Just yesterday, she’d been plotting with Omi about pranking the other two because April’s Fools was on its way and today she was, more or less, imprisoned in her own temple.

It was weird, this imprisonment, this staunch belief in her being the culprit to crime that wasn’t really a crime. Sure, a test was found but it still didn’t add up.

Kimiko hadn’t been on a single date for a long time, so she didn’t understand where this was coming from. She and Raimundo even joked about it on the last Valentine’s Day, the one they dubbed Single’s Day because neither had dates.

They had been more than happy for Clay, though. He’d been taking everybody’s turns running errands in the nearby town just so he may run into Jae-Hyun, the South Korean exchange student to the local high school.

He’d spent many a day and a night—in between training, on Wu hunts, at night when they actually tried to sleep—telling them how smart Jae-Hyun was. How funny and how cute he was. How _everything_ he was.

Clay also said he had a nice smile and nice hair. Kimiko had even heard him say ‘cute ears’ once and spent an afternoon with Omi trying to analyze what makes someone say a guy’s ears are cute.

She and Raimundo dropped their plans of going Grinch that Single’s Day and did the best they could trying to pick Clay’s outfit. Raimundo even let him borrow his newest Jordan’s, the ones he was yet to unwrap.

The cowboy, stressed and nervous to the brim, found that gesture touching, though.

“Gee, Rai”, Clay had said, genuinely. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d have said it looks like you have a heart!”

Said boy only rolled his eyes. “One more smart thing and the shoes go back into lockdown.”

So, Clay shut up, though he did scoff and roll his eyes as he left. He was mumbling something too, but Kimiko didn’t catch it.

When Omi asked for another of Raimundo’s shoes he’d had his eyes on, declaring that he would wear them even if his feet swim in the extra space, the latter told him to back off and Kimiko told the boy he could borrow anything of hers.

Then Jermaine came and Omi, who’d been ready to argue his not-yet fourteen year-old behind off, smiled a huge smile that stretched from ear to ear, forgot about them and left the room.

That day went well, as well as a Valentine’s Day could when she was dateless anyway.

Kimiko and Raimundo, another dateless douche by his own admission, decided they might as well put on some face masks and chill, so they did.

Most of that night, all that they’d done was watch a few random videos and have a surprisingly serious conversation about which of her cousins Raimundo could realistically get with if he wanted to marry rich.

His first choice was Mayumi, which was predictable because all boys who liked girls liked Mayumi, and his second was Koji, which was less predictable because he was nerdy and scrawny and often struggled in dating.

The apprentices by the door didn’t know that, though. Kimiko had never taken her Mandarin lessons back in Tokyo seriously so she was a little slow in the language. As they whispered, however, she made out words like ‘_alone_ _together_’ and ‘_Dragons_’ and ‘_last_ _month_’.

She hoped what she understood wasn’t what they actually said, what the boys said last night too, but knew it strongly might be. Kimiko felt suffocated and wanted to scream. She could have.

It wasn’t at all that ridiculous because even if the old masters heard, they would have ignored her.

After an unceremonious meal of chicken and rice, Kimiko laid back on her mat and tried to think on the outside world. She was dreading it but she had to.

She’d seen a Japanese paparazzo outside the temple a few days ago and instead of yelling at him to get off the Xiaolin property, the heiress’s old tendencies at making fun of the press and scandalizing the family took over.

She used Raimundo for that, knowing he was eager for his fifteen minutes of fame, because some of the unfriendly poses she had in mind needed a second person.

She might have also had the idea that out of all temple residents, an ex-circus clown-slash-occasional-acrobat would have sent her Oba Miku into fits of rage the most, for more reasons than one.

The old woman loved white people so Clay was out of question. And although her aunt did have a superiority complex about Japan being the ‘_best country in the Asian continent_’, Omi was, for all intents and purposes, Kimiko’s little brother and that just put a bad taste in her mouth.

Right now, though, Kimiko regretted not just swallowing the taste because she realized how bad this could get.

Did the news reach Oba Miku and the others?

She had no idea whether the tabloid photographer left the town or not but she overheard that Master Huang went to the town last night and came back slurring on his words a little.

That terrified her because everyone knew that Huang spilled anything, words included, if he had less than half a beer. He was a good man and a _notorious_ lightweight.

Did the news reach Keiko then? What about her old friends from school and the ones from her Judo classes? Did the Japanese media make this their story to sensationalize like they periodically did with anyone with the name Tohomiko? God, did—did the news reach _Papa_?!

Finding difficulty breathing and feeling her chest constrict a little, Kimiko rocked back and forth as she tried to calm herself down. She _needed_ to calm down before she went into a full panic.

Words started making themselves known in her head, words she hadn’t used about herself or other girls anymore. The last time she’d said something like that out loud she’d been thirteen and ignorant, unconscious of her own internalized misogyny. Yet here she was, thinking she deserved it.

Clay entered the room then, disrupting her horrid train of thought, with two cups of tea and a few biscuits on a tray. He’d been smiling guiltily, which she ignored.

Kimiko hugged him when he set it down on the tiny table but couldn’t shake her surprise at his appearance. He’d walked through the door un-shrouded.

“So, they let you in, huh?”, she asked, taking a much-needed sip of her tea. “Weren’t they afraid you might catch ‘shame’?”

Clay cracked a small smile at her air quotes. “They tried turning us away. Key-word: _tried_. We aren’t allowed to all go in at once, though.”

Happy with her friends' efforts, Kimiko smiled and sighed, taking in the lack of bruises on Clay’s forearms.

“So, you guys got the Wu?”

“Oh”, the cowboy said, shaking his head. “Nope, couldn’t get it. We lost the showdown.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Were you all fighting?”

“No, it was Omi’s showdown today.”

“And he _lost_? Who did he fight?”

Clay sighed, more to himself than anything. “Jack Spicer. The new Wu wasn’t all that important—it just lets you get a better view of constellations—but the Jetbootsu, though, that was mighty important.”

“We’ll get it back next time”, Kimiko said, shrugging. “It’s Jack. We know how to deal with him.”

She paused, pursing her lips curiously. “How did he lose, though?”

“Jack challenged Omi to a showdown”, Clay answered. “Little partner was doing good at first but then Jack made a joke about you and Omi just _lost_ it. He went and kicked Jack’s ass.”

“But that’s a win”, Kimiko countered.

Clay shook his head. “That was out of the showdown’s rules so it counted as a forfeit.”

“Wow”, she said, aware it was an understatement. “I can’t believe _Omi_ lost it. What was the joke?”

“He, uh, he asked where you were”, he said, scratching his chin. “Because it was about time we locked you up.”

Sucking the air from her teeth, Kimiko made a noncommittal surprised noise, which Clay answered with a set of widened eyes.

“I know”, he added, taking a sip of his tea.

Kimiko did the same and bit into a biscuit, savoring the tangy sweetness. Sighing, Clay smiled a little as he gave her a look.

“I have good news.”

“Oh, please do tell”, Kimiko said, sarcastically. “Will I get to go to the bathroom on my own now?”

Before he could answer, she turned to Mao, who she knew was eavesdropping, and asked him, with a smile, if he could shut the door.

“I don’t think he’ll be able to do that”, Clay said, coughing awkwardly. “The elders know we snuck in last night so now they prefer to let us hang out with you with the door opened.”

Kimiko bit the inside of her cheeks just so she could relieve some anger she no longer had the fire for.

“So, what’s your good news then?”

“Master Fung is taking you to get tested at the hospital”, Clay said, avoiding her eyes.

The implication that she might fake the result if she took an unsupervised test was too loud to ignore but Kimiko tried anyway.

“What changed their minds?”

“Raimundo did”, Clay said, proudly. “You shoulda’ seen that boy, Kim. He was even speaking down to Master Fung!”

Kimiko shared his smile now, relieved. She knew her friends wouldn’t abandon her but hearing that said out loud was a relief.

“I wish I knew how to thank him without giving him a bigger ego”, she said, rolling her eyes.

Clay snorted. “That’d be impossible, little lady. He’s already walking with a little strut in his step, all proud of how loud his big man voice was.”

He paused, giving an eye roll that rivaled her own. “He already thinks the sun comes up just to hear him crow, bless his heart.”

“Just say fuck you, it’s easier”, Kimiko said, smirking.

Clay smiled too and sat in a comfortable silence with Kimiko as she casually finished the rest of the biscuits. She didn’t miss the way his worried eyes trailed over her stomach, concerned, and tried to not feel as hurt as she did over it.

After a while, he told her Keiko called and they told her Kimiko wasn’t allowed to use her phone for a few days, like she sometimes was when Master Fung thought she used it too much.

“Did she say anything to you about this?”, Kimiko asked, curiously. “Like, did she mention anything about news or tabloids?”

Understanding her drift, the Earth Dragon nodded. “No, she was just talking casually. Omi said her tone was very natural, so I don’t think she knows.”

He didn’t, of course, tell her that Keiko called because she and the boys were planning her a surprise party for her seventeenth. Kimiko had already known, though, after accidentally listening in on one of those conversations.

It was silly, but she’d been excited about it even though it was a month away. The theme—_they even made her a _theme—was supposedly something she’d loved, from what she gathered. That just made her more excited. It seemed stupid now.

Sighing, the girl shut her eyes to mutter a thankful prayer. She’d never been religious but now seemed a good a time as any.

As Clay made his way to the door, bidding her good night, Kimiko told him one last thing.

“Thank you for stopping by. I needed that.”

* * *

The next day Kimiko was finally released from her mandatory abode.

Not entirely, no, but for a quick visit to the bathroom first before being escorted by Master Fung to the old temple car outside.

As she walked, with a silent Master Fung leading the way, the girl forgot about her predicament for a few moments and breathed in the fresh air. It had been two days, almost three, and she was happy to be somewhere other than the bathroom or that godforsaken room for once.

The sunlight felt refreshing on her skin and the spring weather made her envious of everyone who had free reign to roam for the past few days.

While they could take their walks and go to their practices, Kimiko only had a book on Xiaolin decorum for fun. She even missed _chores_ after the first chapter.

In the car ride to the hospital or wherever medical center Master Fung was taking them to, Kimiko noticed he didn’t let Raimundo drive.

His gaze had been a little cold, too, as he motioned the boy to the backseat next to Kimiko, who wondered what he could have possibly said to make Master Fung that upset.

The old teacher almost never lost his cool with them, even when they _did_ deserve it.

One time, his foot got caught in one of the fissures Clay caused trying to practice a move and as they heard the bone pop, Master Fung told her to get the Rio Reverso and told Clay to try again.

On the way to the town nearby, Kimiko gave Raimundo a nervous smile though she had no reason to be. She _knew_ that, but the weight of the visit and the tension stretching all the way from the temple to the car made her forget some details.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Raimundo’s hands twitching on his lap every few seconds. He wanted to hold her hand, probably to reassure her, but catching Master Fung’s eyes in the rearview mirror, he couldn’t.

It was a silent, painfully awkward ride all in all. The silence was only interrupted by the radio static occasionally picking a station it lost two minutes later.

In the medical center, Master Fung disappeared to talk to a man, dressed in a white doctor’s coat, who gave Kimiko a creepy smile that raised goosebumps on her arms.

She shrunk a little into her robes, into her seat, afterwards as she hoped and prayed that that man would have nothing to do with her appointment. When Master Fung’s voice finally faded out of earshot, Raimundo turned to her, relieved.

“Finally,” he said. “I actually thought I might die if he saw me looking at you.”

Kimiko nodded at him. “I saw. You looked like you were going to shit your pants.”

“Let’s thank God I didn’t then,” Raimundo said.

He gave her a worried look soon after, which she answered with a curious look of her own.

“This is stupid,” he began. “I know nothing happened, _miga_, but I feel like I did something!”

Raising her eyebrows, Kimiko made to whack him upside the head but boxed him in the ear instead.

“Okay, _I_ can say that because I’ve been in solitary for, like, two days but what the hell is the matter with you?!”

“Everyone keeps _looking_ at me!”

Kimiko looked around the waiting room, noticing that he was right and everyone was looking at them. Sighing, she turned back to her nervous friend.

“Maybe because we’re wearing bright Xiaolin monk robes”, she said, exasperated. “Did you consider that?”

Raimundo gave her a dirty look. “Of course they’ll look at me _here_, Kimiko, my face alone is a proof of God’s existence. I was talking about the temple.”

He took his time before speaking again.

“I know its nothing like what you’ve been through because _nothing_ can be”, he said. “It’s just that, personally, I’d rather get punished for something I did.”

Kimiko snorted. “So would I, honestly.”

“We can spare some time”, Raimundo cheekily said, clearly joking. “There’s a supply closet I spotted on the way in.”

Of course you did, she thought. “I don’t think I’d be in the mood, you fucking dolt.”

“Well, my offer still stands”, he said, smiling.

Kimiko rolled her eyes. “Aren’t I a lucky girl!”

“No, not that”, Raimundo whispered seriously. “My Tia’s abortion clinic, I mean.”

She couldn’t control her shocked face, as he continued.

“Okay, so it’s a bit rough-looking on the outside”, he said. “But that’s only so police leave her alone, you know. Abortion’s not, like, legal-legal yet back home, like it’s still criminalized, but the clinic itself is clean. It’s safe, and she won’t charge you.”

To that, Kimiko squinted in disbelief. “You, you told your aunt?”

“I got ahead of myself, I know, but we still don’t know if you’re pregnant or not”, Raimundo explained. “So, I told her—she yelled, obviously, about how stupid and careless I was and I told her I didn’t even do anything and then she said—”

“Neither did I”, Kimiko said, cutting in. “I didn’t do anything, I _told_ you that.”

She looked at him, suddenly uncertain, as he processed her words. She did tell him, didn’t she? Kimiko hoped she didn’t hallucinate that part. It’d be too embarrassing.

“You did”, Raimundo said. “But that’s because Clay and Omi were there, but I _know_, though.”

“Know what?”, Kimiko asked, nervously. She hoped that none of the old masters somehow got in his head and changed his views about the whole thing.

Raimundo gave her a look, raising an eyebrow, but when she only looked confused, he answered.

“Remember that night?”, he began. “It was like a week after Single’s Day and you asked me to cover for you because you were going to meet someone in Tokyo. Like, a _date_.”

He paused, looking behind him before turning again.

“You didn’t come home until it was a little before wake-up time, remember?”

Blinking, Kimiko felt stupid all of a sudden. She remembered now but she’d completely blanked out on that night. Yumi, a friend of hers, had texted her about a party she was having and invited her along.

She was already sold, but Keiko then called her to say she’d set her on a blind date so Kimiko had been a little interested in going.

She’d went and told Raimundo about it, just to rub in that her single streak lasted shorter than his did, and told him to cover for her.

In Tokyo, at Yumi’s apartment, though, Kimiko, who’d been excited for the date, who wondered if it was a guy or a girl, was told that the date had stood her up.

She stayed anyway for the party and lost track of time. Going home that night, she’d resolved to forget about the date that never was and to not tell anyone about it.

Sighing, Kimiko looked her friend in the eye. “I remember, but I didn’t—he didn’t make it, Keiko said his mother went to the hospital and he couldn’t come.”

“And”, Raimundo said, curiously. “You didn’t meet anyone else then?”

Kimiko glared at him. “No, I think I would have mentioned it. I _just_ had fun.”

“I believe you, you know”, her friend said, giving her a reassuring look. “You know I do.”

“You don’t believe me,” she said, not looking at him. “You thought I lied.”

Raimundo shook his head vehemently. “No, of course not! I was just checking just in case you forgot or anything. It _can_ happen. People forget.”

He stopped talking then, slapping himself on the forehead.

“God, I’m a dick!”

Smiling through the small tears that came with the shock, Kimiko agreed. “Yeah, you are.”

“I believe you, though,” he said again. “We said this before, I’d help you bury a body.”

She grinned. “And I’d help you take over a drug empire.”

When he looked away, Kimiko’s grin dropped. She didn’t want to prod now. For once, she was a little scared to do so.

* * *

The wait was awful. The medical center’s sterile smell felt suffocating and the clock seemed to somehow go on slower and slower each minute.

Raimundo didn’t bring his phone along. He doubted that he could really scroll through his Instagram while his friend was on the other side of a door waiting for possibly life-changing news.

Maybe he should have though, he bitterly thought. Master Fung hadn’t allowed him to go in and that was the second time he’d been banned from being in a room with Kimiko. Only this time there were no other elders around.

Over the past few days, as Kimiko suffered in her solitary confinement, Raimundo and the other two boys had to deal with the people inside the temple and the ones outside its walls too.

Omi took to their room more often, unwilling to hear one word of slander against his friend, and Clay simply resorted to death glares and hidden barbwire insults.

Raimundo was the only one who could freely talk back, safe from the folds of his rank, but doing that wouldn’t have made things better for anyone, so he learned to choose his battles.

It hadn’t surprised him that he was the first ‘suspect’. Of course, _he_ would be. Just like every time someone broke an ornament or accidentally started the end of the world or pulled a prank. Get Raimundo, the elders would say. Even if he didn’t do it, he had a hand in it.

To the elders and the other monks, he knew, he was that aggressive, untrustworthy kid. This _definitely_ had nothing to do with his skin-tone. Most definitely. He just…um, seemed the type and—and didn’t he have previous experience with that?

The one bit he hated most was when the elders collectively agreed that, of course, his upbringing, said in a resigned tone of people who literally knew nothing, was the reason for this.

They didn’t talk about the circus, oh no. That would have been a definite misunderstanding on their part, but it was one that could have made sense. No, they talked about Brazil as a whole.

It made going off the rails much more difficult than it had been before. He had to hold his tongue back a lot, which he couldn’t do now.

He told off Zhang, for parroting another rumor about Kimiko, and Cho, for laughing at it. Then, he also told off anyone who dared look their way as they passed her new room.

The only ones safe from his insults were the elders and high-ranking monks. That is until the tea room, of course. Raimundo couldn’t remember a time when he’d yelled that harshly. He sometimes still felt his throat strain from regular speech, recalling the physical memory.

After that day, Raimundo discovered he had put himself—and consequently, apparently, Kimiko—at odds with everyone else.

Masters Luo and Yang and Ling, the bastard triumvirate, were now convinced something had happened. Dojo was awkward about it, always fleeing before any of them could get a word in. And Master Fung—Master Fung was a grey area.

He’d yelled at him, he really did. Raimundo couldn’t fathom that he’d stood there and yelled at the face of their teacher and guardian, voice growing louder with each word.

“I think I know what’s best for my team”, he’d said, in that strange voice that wasn’t his. “I’m their leader and this is an _order_.”

He’d paused, then hastily added a ‘Master Fung’, as if it could make the viciousness and the superiority lessen in his words. The old teacher seemed shocked by the speech, an odd look in his eyes, but he’d agreed to the request.

Fine, Wind Dragon, he’d said. He didn’t use his name then and hadn’t called on him for the rest of the day.

Though Raimundo did feel a little guilty about his tone, he didn’t feel a morsel of remorse for the speech or the order. What was the alternative? Leaving Kimiko in that room until further notice?

He couldn’t do that. Neither she or Clay or Omi or he himself would forgive him for that. Raimundo could already tell Omi was having a hard time with trying—and failing—not to blame him already. He was right, though. He’d tried but he had to try harder.

One day in that room had changed Kimiko, they’d all seen it. She was shaky and scared and upset and that wasn’t Kimiko. She’d been crying too.

The second day wasn’t much better, according to Clay. She was even more of a nervous wreck then and her thoughts had taken her somewhere clearly unpleasant. Raimundo wished he could have gone to see her, then bitterly smiled as he remembered why he couldn’t.

“We will allow you all time to visit with your fellow Dragon”, Master Lin had said. “Each will see her, except for you Omi. You are much too young to be left there alone.”

The youngest of the warriors had bristled at that, but eventually nodded. Raimundo shared a look with Clay then. They knew this was code for ‘easily influenced’. That was why they didn’t want Omi to go to that guest room alone.

“As for you, Raimundo”, the old master said. “If you wish to visit your fellow warrior, you must tell me beforehand. Else you can’t go in.”

He had raised an eyebrow at that. “Does Clay have to do that?”

“No, the Earth Dragon can go at any time if he wishes. The door has to be open, though.”

“And I can’t do that”, Raimundo completed. “Why?”

Master Lin scoffed. “You need a chaperone, boy. I think I don’t have to go into details.”

It was at that point, that Omi protested and said that he could easily go to Master Fung, only to have Lin give him a sarcastic look. Who did Omi think put down these rules?

Their teacher put down those rules and their teacher drove them to the medical center, without a word of reassurance. Kimiko was nervous and twitchy, Raimundo saw, taking a breath of fresh air every few seconds like it might be her last.

The fact that she did that, that she even had to think about that, made him sad and angry all at once. That wasn’t fair at all. What was her crime, anyway, even if it was hers? They’d literally seen the end of the world before. Was that worse?

At the medical center, Master Fung left with a creepy man in a white coat and Raimundo finally had a chance to talk to Kimiko. Only to irredeemably screw it up.

He’d been too focused on getting the truth—the real truth—to know whether to proceed to the abortion clinic plan or not. He hadn’t even asked if the temple was pro or against, so he kept going and re-going over different outcomes. Somehow all plans involved using the Claws to escape in the middle of the night. 

As he ran the conversation back now by himself, he couldn’t believe he’d accused her of lying. She looked hurt at his words, unbelieving that they were coming out of his mouth. Betrayed even. Raimundo had been her friend, one of her closest friends, and he’d betrayed her.

He had his suspicions, as did Omi and Clay, but he was the one who shared his in the worst of ways. He told her maybe she didn’t remember, which was bad. Then he hinted that she’d lied, which was worse. Every word out of his mouth was a disaster.

She had every right to not forgive him and he knew it. Raimundo couldn’t even blame her.

He could only blame himself. Alongside the elders, of course. Master Fung, too, had to shoulder some of the blame. Raimundo was aware he was pulling an Omi, but at least blaming their teacher made sense.

He’d had the power to make this not turn out so horribly, but what had he done? Nothing.

He’d done nothing then and he was doing nothing now. Raimundo worried that if he hadn’t asked, the old man wouldn’t have taken them to the center to test Kimiko and then where would they be? Would she be locked up still?

Sighing, the Wind Dragon stood up and made to move only to be stopped by Master Fung, with a questioning look.

“Where to?”

“To the bathroom. Don’t worry, I’ll try not to knock anyone up.”

The teenager left with that line, but the old man was relentless and followed until they reached a nearly empty hallway. Only then did Raimundo stop, probably aware that Master Fung wasn’t about to give up.

“Raimundo, is that really necces—”

“Oh”, the boy interjected, as if shocked. “You know my name now? I wouldn’t have thought it, you know, with you going ‘_Wind Dragon this_’ and ‘_Young Dragon that’_. Surreal, isn’t it?”

Master Fung only sighed. “I’d rather you get all of the negativity out of your system before we go back to home. I know you are upset for Kimiko—”

“Upset? Nah, man, try angry. Try livid”, Raimundo said, cutting him off again. “How do you go on talking about 'home', when this happened? What kind of home locks up their own? You really shouldn’t talk. Fact, you shouldn’t even _speak_ her name.”

That cut deep into the old man. If Master Fung had been any younger, of mind or of body, he might have thought that unfair. The boy didn’t know half of what he had to put up with for the temple. The many duties that sometimes overlapped or negated each other.

But he wasn’t. He was the adult here and he had to shoulder these responsibilities. And all the consequences that came after. 

“I only did my duty. You know this. We all have our duties and I have mine, to you and your fellow warriors and to the Xiaolin temple.”

“And what was that?”, the boy asked with narrowed eyes. “Your duty to the temple or to us?”

Master Fung stood his ground. “Both. I want to protect Kimiko and this was the only way to do so. I only wish you would understand one day.”

He paused, sighing. “Don’t loiter, I’m going back to the waiting room.”

Of course, Master Fung knew he would loiter.

This was an angry teenager after a confrontation, so it went without say that Raimundo wouldn’t follow him back immediately. Come to think of it, neither would Fung if he was in the same situation. 

He’d been yelled at by his student, the very same one, two days in a row.

There was nothing to say and no angry feelings to be felt. Master Fung had technically raised Raimundo for these past four years, so he knew him.

He knew he was going to yell. He didn’t expect anything less, not when he told his students to always stand for justice.

Master Fung also knew Kimiko. Having raised her too meant he knew she was a little reckless but brilliant, impatient but innovative, and daring in obscene quantities.

She didn’t seem anything like that when she left the guest room. Her eyes looked everywhere but at him. She was betrayed and he knew he betrayed her. He’d even let them lock away her chi.

It wasn’t like there was anything he could do. He knew it the minute Ling burst into that cursed meeting and interrupted to tell them about a plastic stick. Yang and Luo had already perked up, eager at the chance, while Wong and Lin were intrigued.

Only Dojo sported a face that was like his, neutral and un-moving, just so they wouldn’t be set against from the beginning. The ancient dragon did try to speak at first, but was unceremoniously shut down by Yang. Then it got out of hand and Kimiko was summoned and humiliated.

Master Fung would never forgive himself for this and neither would she, he knew. He didn’t deserve her forgiveness. None of them did.

At that moment, the old man was surprised. He’d been sitting on one of the waiting room chairs, noticing the arrival of a reluctant teenager leaning by the room’s exit.

Soon, the doctor’s doors opened and Kimiko came out of it. The doctor motioned Master Fung into the office, as his two students hugged. He could only hope this was good news

* * *

“What’s taking them so long?”

That was Omi, pacing across the courtyard by the front entrance. Clay only looked at him, hands stuffed in his pockets, as he chewed the inside of his cheek.

“How long do you reckon an abortion takes?”

At that question, Omi stopped in his tracks and turned to face Clay. He was thankful now that Dojo had opted to stay in Master Fung’s room instead of with them here.

“What are you saying?”, the youngest Dragon asked. “She said she’s not pregnant.”

Even as he said that, Omi knew he wasn’t convinced. He had to say it, though, because no one else did.

The elders and other monks and even the apprentices had taken to whispering their expectations. Others, among them Master Ling, had taken to sharing their theories.

Omi heard one of them say they didn’t think the Wind Dragon was the father. Not because he was honorable, gods forbid, but because his reaction had been too stunned. It took all Omi had of inner peace to not jump that old man and kick him and his twisted idea of honor to the highest heavens.

He had to admit, though, that with the whispering and the theories, even he was starting to have doubts. As ashamed as that made him feel.

Omi opened his mouth to say something but the sound of a screeching horn made him clamp up. That tired old noise could only mean the temple car was on its way and it was.

As Master Fung pulled over, he and Clay stood close together, waiting anxiously. Any minute now, they both thought, they’d all find out the answer.

The doors opened and Raimundo, followed by a tired Kimiko, exited the car. Omi frowned, noticing that they’d both looked grim, faces downcast, as they made their way to the courtyard.

Clay shared a look with Omi, as they heard the unmistaken sound of one of Kimiko’s sniffles.

“Oh no”, the cowboy said, barely audible. “Please, Jesus, no.”

As their friends approached, footsteps growing louder, Omi clenched his knuckles so hard they paled. Kimiko’s face was clearer the nearer she’d come, he saw, and it was so sad he nearly teared up himself.

“I was thinking”, she began, muttering. “Maybe blue for the nursery.”

Clay’s jaw dropped about the same time as Omi’s heart fell into his stomach. They probably shared the same dismayed looks, until Kimiko spoke again, an unmistakable smile spreading on her face and in her voice.

“But that will have to wait a long, long, _long_ time!”

The cowboy had moved to hug her before she was even done, wrapping her in one of his famous bone-crushing hugs. Omi joined the hug after he gathered his nerves.

“Never do that again, little lady”, Clay was saying. “I think I’ll have trouble breathing for the rest of my life!”

As the day progressed and Kimiko moved back to her room and was reunited with her element, the Dragons took the rest of the day off.

They didn’t do anything with that privilege, mostly keeping to their room with their recently returned friend, with the exception of leaving to the kitchen to steal snacks every few hours.

Even though they hadn’t said it out loud, the three boys had decided they weren’t going to leave Kimiko alone today. She’d already suffered the silence for two days, almost three, and they weren’t about to let her re-experience that.

It was also unsaid, but none of them wanted any of the old masters taking the chance to talk to her. They’d all known that Master Yang, and to some degree Master Luo too, were dying to take up arguing about some of her habits again.

Later that night, after lights-out when they’d all gone to bed, Kimiko opened her eyes, unable to sleep. She’d refused to eat lunch today and now the hunger pangs came back to bite her in the stomach.

Sneaking lightly on her feet, the Fire Dragon went to the kitchen and made herself a sandwich when she found none of the leftovers she scoured for.

She was munching away when Omi came into the kitchen, seemingly thirsty.

As he took his time drinking his sole glass of water, the youngest of the warriors sat on the chair opposite hers, cross-legged. So, he knew she was up. Judging by the way he was looking at her, he needed to talk.

“Are you okay?”, Omi asked, worriedly. “I didn’t mention it earlier, but you looked terrible today.”

Sarcastically smiling, Kimiko found nothing to say. “Thanks, O.”

“Not physically”, the younger boy explained. “Well, you do have extra baggage under the eyes there and—”

Patting at her face to hide the defects, she glared at him. “Your point?”

“Right. Your chi is all over the place”, Omi said.

Kimiko shrugged. This was a bit of a clear situation, so she didn’t know why he asked.

“Yeah, I was kinda put on the spot there. It was so Scarlet Letter, I don’t even know how to begin.”

“What’s that?”, Omi asked, squinting.

She tilted her head. “It’s a book I’m supposed to be reading to keep up with my International Lit. class but I’m going to copy off Clay’s notes.”

The younger boy pursed his lips, nodding along. There was more he wanted to say, Kimiko could tell, but he wasn’t speaking. This was a good chance as any to share her own thoughts, something she desperately needed to do.

“I should leave, right?”

She and Omi shared a look then. They may have been as different as, well, fire and water, but they both knew what the other was thinking at this moment.

If any of the boys had been put in a similar situation and had noticed their very rights, along with their dignity, were on the line, this question wouldn’t have needed to be asked.

If it had been Raimundo, they knew he would have been gone as soon as he ripped the robes off and told every elder to shove it. And although Clay often took the heat, often soaking in as much as he could, when he ran out of patience and got angry, it was dangerous to stand in his way.

They would both have left and no one would have blamed them. No one would have been able to do so.

“I’d miss you too much,” Omi said, sighing. “But yes. If I was in this position, I would.”

That surprised her. “You, Omi?”

“Yes,” her friend said. “The temple is important to me and I owe it everything I am, but _this_—this is you and this way they’ve treated you, Kimiko…this wasn’t right at all.”

He paused, worry making him look like the ten year-old she’d met on her first day.

“Will you leave?”

Kimiko thought about it, running the idea in her head. She didn’t want to leave the temple or her mission or her boys, but Omi was right. This had been far too unjust. Even the regular sexism she’d faced here seemed demure by what had happened over the past few days.

She’d always known that a lot of the old masters never liked her. They had many reasons not to. Her temper and her mean streak and the way she periodically singed the shrubbery.

Out of the many legitimate reasons, though, they went on to pick her gender.

It was a bummer, honestly. Kimiko thought they’d began to accept her. They had to because she was a Dragon and yet, they hadn’t even stopped to listen to her. They plugged their ears and gave their verdict.

Kimiko didn’t need either Clay or Raimundo’s confirmation to know that what the elders had done to her was the nearest thing to crucifixion. She should leave, she knew, but couldn’t.

She still had her duty to this temple, to her friends and teammates, and to herself as a Xiaolin Dragon. She was resolved. Fuck the old masters, fuck everything else. They weren’t driving her away, no matter how hard they tried.

“No”, she finally answered. “But I should.”

Omi agreed. “You should.”

With that weight off her shoulders, Kimiko went back to her unfinished sandwich and took another bite, while Omi relented to hunger and took out a half-empty bag of chips from the cupboard.

“You’re going to hear an awful bunch of apologies, you know.”

“From who, the elders? You know they never admit when they’re wrong.”

Omi gave her a guilty look. “I wasn’t talking about the elders. I’m sorry.”

“What for?”, Kimiko asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

He shrugged, raising his hands only to drop them again. Shuffling his feet, Omi looked slightly anxious as he confessed.

“I never believed—I didn’t believe when you first said it”, he said, ruefully. “I’m sorry, but I just kept thinking about the test and—”

“It’s okay,” she said, cutting him off. “You’re not the only one, so you know.”

Omi nodded. “Yeah, the other two might have thought about it that way too. I can only apologize for myself, though.”

“As you should,” Kimiko said, smiling. “Girl hug?”

Omi cringed at the old term but nodded and walked to where she sat with her arms open and hugged her. He patted her back and apologized some more, not content with the one time.

“I got it, stop apologizing.”

“A million apologies won’t be enough, Kimiko, let me just apologize until I lose count.”

* * *

Over the next few days, things started going back to normal. By the next week, the incident had been almost forgotten on the surface.

Omi was right and Kimiko did receive multiple apologies many times from Raimundo, Clay, Zhao, and the other two apprentices who’d guarded the guest room.

The elders and the other high-ranking monks hadn’t apologized, which wasn’t surprising, but Dojo only apologized once. Master Fung hadn’t uttered the word out loud, but did allow her to take as much time off as she wanted from training.

No formal apology would be presented, Clay told them one day when he overheard, because the council didn’t really think that what they’d done was out of order.

It was the Xiaolin code and the Xiaolin way, they’d said. Kimiko grumbled that it was the Xiaolin code twisted _way_ beyond context.

She didn’t want to dwell on it, though, so she threw herself into trainings and missions and Wu hunts to effectively forget. By the time ten days had passed, Kimiko could finally walk past Master Luo without the urge to bitch-slap him, displaying admirable self-restraint.

Monday was a normal day, like all the rest, and Kimiko was sat on the training grounds watching as Omi and Raimundo made a competition out of target practice.

When the former won, she and Clay both whooped like they would have done for the other.

“Anyway, so like I was saying”, Raimundo said, as if he hadn’t just lost by an embarrassing margin. “You wanna hear a joke?”

“Sure, baby daddy”, Kimiko nodded, as Clay picked up some Wu off the ground. “Who is it about this time, Master Yang or Portuguese people?”

Ignoring her, Raimundo got on with it. “So, this Portuguese dude went to an airport in Brazil, okay? And he’s flying out so he goes to board with all his bags and a friend, this _Carioca_, sees him.”

He pauses, trying not to laugh. “So, his friend shouts ‘_tudo joia_’ and dude goes ‘_no, half is cocaine_’!”

The other three shared a look as their friend finally let out the laugh he’d held in, confused.

“Um”, Clay began. “What’s _joia_? I know _tudo_ means all, but I’ve never heard that word.”

Raimundo sobered up. “Ugh, right. _Tudo joia_ can mean ‘is everything fine’ but the word joia itself means jewelry.”

“So, when the friend shouts it, they’re asking is everything fine, but the dude will think it—”

“That’s a stupid joke”, Omi interrupted, cutting Clay off. “Your lizard jokes about Dojo are better.”

“Well, you should learn Portuguese. They make more sense like that”, Raimundo said, arms crossed.

Omi imitated his gesture and his voice. “_Well_, go learn Mandarin.”

The ancient dragon guarding the temple chose this as the moment to interrupt, flying into the grounds, hurriedly. He seemed excited about something.

“I’ve made lasagna for you kids today, all by myself”, Dojo announced proudly. “Two dishes, one vegetarian and one regular!”

Kimiko scoffed. “Hopefully they don’t turn out like the sesame chicken you tried to make. It was still squawking.”

The boys laughed at that, some snorting and some giggling, without effort. Only Dojo’s nervous laugh seemed forced, with good reason. Kimiko had been directing all her anger at the dragon, expressing it in the form of ‘friendly teasing’.

That might have been the literal definition of bullying but she didn’t care.

She hadn’t warmed up to him yet, since the Incident, but couldn’t do that to Master Fung, no matter how much she wanted to.

The old man was her teacher, but Dojo was supposed to be her friend and guardian. He hadn’t taken her side then, so she knew he couldn’t say anything about his hurt feelings now.

In the Dragons’ room, after she’d showered, Kimiko heard Omi’s exaggerated whoop as he announced that Izumi, the old cook, was back in the temple after her vacation.

“I’m going to the shrine to pray”, the boy announced dramatically. “The gods have listened!”

Kimiko cracked a smile at that, returning to her phone without comment. When Raimundo returned from his shower and Clay went to take his, she’d started to hear her stomach grumble, so she jogged to the kitchen.

She stopped without entering, though. Two people were in the kitchen and one of them was angry.

Hiding from the view of the door, Kimiko pressed her back against the wall and listened. This was good gossip material and the boys would appreciate that.

As she listened, the young girl realized that the angry voice was Izumi’s.

She couldn’t make out who the silent man was, but now she was intrigued. The old woman was pissed and Kimiko never heard her voice like that. Not even when she berated her.

“—just don’t understand how you could do this without telling me, Wen”, the old woman was saying. “What were you thinking? Had you completely lost your mind?”

The only answer to that was a hum, a familiar hum Kimiko had heard before. It was Master Fung’s. She would know his voice anywhere.

Izumi huffed. “Why?”

“You know why, Izumi,” the old teacher began. “It was the only way.”

“Bullshit”, the cook said, causing Kimiko jump in shock. “Did you not see Ling when he went into the room? Did you not see his hands?”

A sigh came from Master Fung now. “I did but I didn’t believe I’d seen what I’d seen, I thought it could be a trick of the light.”

“And when he stopped the council meeting to hold up that pregnancy test, did you think it was a trick then?”

Kimiko forcefully shut her eyes. From the first few lines, she thought she’d been overhearing an argument about a tantalizing forbidden romance between a high-ranking Xiaolin monk and the temple’s cook.

She wasn’t, though. It was about the test. Everything always came back to that stupid piece of plastic.

“I had no way to stop him.”

“You had a way to suspend the meeting and have a talk alone with Ling before he brought that horror show upon us, though.”

“I couldn’t,” Master Fung was saying, sounding guilty to Kimiko’s ears. “Master Shu from the Southern Temple was here and he was in attendance. To call off the meeting wouldn’t have been good in our favor.”

“Terrifying that little girl wasn’t good in your favor, Wen. What you could have done but didn’t do could have saved her this horrible experience!”

Kimiko couldn’t believe it, but it sounded like Izumi was acting in her defense.

The _same_ Izumi who fought her over her choice of dress, the same woman who said that her wearing fishnets was the reason why she wouldn’t be thought of as a ‘good girl’, was defending her now.

“We still don’t know who that pregnancy test belongs to”, Master Fung began again after some time. “Is it yours, Izumi?”

“Of course it isn’t, but you still should have called and asked me” the old cook said with a sigh. “It belongs to my granddaughter, Kana.”

Another pause took over until the woman spoke again.

“She went to the bathroom to take it”, Izumi explained. “But she didn’t see whose bathroom she went in and in our haste to make good traffic, Kana panicked and forgot it there.”

After the old cook was done, Kimiko didn’t wait to hear what Master Fung had to say. She had a hand over her mouth ever since the woman made the reveal and couldn’t wait any longer.

She didn’t wait to hear him say he was sorry, or he was guilty, or that he should have listened. Kimiko almost hurried to the bathroom but thought better of it.

She couldn’t run holding her mouth in that direction without everyone thinking about the cursed incident again so she ran to the Wu vault, where no one would be there to see her this time of day.

Once inside the vault, Kimiko let her hand drop and began to laugh.

Her laughter was too loud and too hysterical, but this was too comical to comprehend. Too odd to simply happen yet it did. Her reaction somehow made her laugh as well.

She’d suffered that injustice when no one should have and yet she was getting increasingly livid with a woman she’d never properly met for doing something completely normal.

Kana, the old cook’s granddaughter, couldn’t have imagined this in a million years.

She probably took the test, like Izumi said, and hurried out, leaving it forgotten. Once in her home with her family, she probably cursed her bad memory and went to the pharmacy to get another test.

When she took the test again, Kana could have rejoiced at the news or sighed and made plans for an abortion. She and Izumi could have argued baby names and whether a traditional name was better than a new-wave name or not.

Among the many things she noticed, the girl couldn’t help but note that everything could have been resolved easily.

Any of the elders could have suggested calling the old cook, who would have surely grumbled but answered anyway. She could have said what she knew and the call would have been over. Just like that.

As the time passed, Kimiko didn’t notice when her laughs mingled with sobs.

**Author's Note:**

> So:
> 
> -men ain't shit
> 
> -obviously, in real temples things don't happen this way, thank God
> 
> -also, yes the boys will obviously be in her corner but then again they might have doubts and stuff because men ain't shit
> 
> -points may be a little redundant, yes


End file.
